free trade isn't free.

Yes, but refusing the buy Nikes wouldn't magically make the kids in sweatshops have better lives. They'd be unemployed and starving. The country where the manufacturing takes place needs to enact a minimum wage law.

Trying to put economic pressure on countries to enact minimum wage laws by refusing to import their goods can backfire by impoverishing the country more.

Poverty in capitalism is like slavery plus a choice of whom to work for.

The companies are to blame, not the countries. Enforcing minimum wage in developing countries would not solve anything, instead the unemployment rate would skyrocket and the company would move on to the next cheap country.

And what is "MTV" going to do about this? They're a multinational corporation, too. Whose seen and unseen influences are not pristine, either. Methinks there's a PR campaign behind this and not the mere "humanitarianism" that the surface suggests.

Way To Go MTV...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBeeWJ9VH3Q

There are costs involved in moving, so small gradual increases in the minimum wage would not be enough to make it worthwhile to move factories. Unemployment would only skyrocket if they actually do move to a cheaper country, in which case they would be raising the average wage of the cheaper country by increasing the demand for labor there. They're not going to produce much less $50 shoes because they suddenly have to pay the assemblers $0.50 instead of $0.01 per. Better than a boycott would be an international minimum wage treaty.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, May 4th, 2008 4:35pm PDT - promote requested by Fedquip.

*promote for Radiohead Day. I love this song. And this video is amazing and eye-opening.

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Thursday, June 5th, 2008 3:15pm PDT - promote requested by UsesProzac.

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